Is­sues within the emer­gency de­part­ments are ap­par­ent in the re­port; while cat­e­gory 5 pa­tients are seen in the rec­om­mended time and cat­e­gory 1 pa­tients are close to 100 per cent on tar­get, cat­e­gories 2 to 4 are fall­ing be­hind.

Prof Stokes said the NMHS was chang­ing the way pa­tients are triaged.

“The other thing that’s oc­cur­ring is staff are get­ting con­fronted all the time by vi­o­lence; it’s a worry with peo­ple on drugs,” he said.

“Their strength is ex­tra­or­di­nary, and that’s adding to stop­ping a depart­ment run­ning smoothly.”

Prof Stokes said a key aim of the board was look­ing at how to pro­vide ser­vices closer to where peo­ple lived.